I have just returned home from a beautiful autumn day spent with our Sandpiper Family Group at Ballina. We were blessed, this week, with having a visit to our parish of a group of young sisters from Canberra who are in the community for the Missionaries of God's Love. They have been working with the youth of the parish in preparation for WYD 2008 and they came to our family group barbeque before heading home.

We live in a beautiful part of the world up here in Ballina and I realise how lucky I am to be part of this group. There are lots of serious discussions on current issues but there are also many laughs and friendship sharing. I have just been reading Fr Peter McGrath's article in the Catholic Leader and realise how much I have to thank him for setting up the Family Groups